


Those hardest to love need it most

by cutebutpsyco



Series: Ironstrange Week [4]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: IronStrange Week, M/M, New York
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 17:36:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14699076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutebutpsyco/pseuds/cutebutpsyco
Summary: IRONSTRANGE WEEK | DAY 4New YorkTony nodded, his eyes fixed on the New Yorker skyline. It was known as “the city that never sleeps”, though Tony was sure the only sleepless were the ones like him. People hunted by ghosts and demons. Was Strange one of that people too?





	Those hardest to love need it most

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the fourth day of the Ironstrange week on Tumblr (but I'm in late, lol).  
> By now, I don't even know what to write in the notes. 
> 
> Nothing belongs to me and this time the title is from "Fools" by Lauren Aquilina.

Stephen climbed over the last floor of the Avengers Headquarter reaching the roof and not being surprised by the only other human seated there. 

“When I joined the Avengers, someone promised me never-ending parties and fancy dinners,” He said, revealing his presence while approaching the man. “That brochure lied to me.”

“We let in another ass-year-old man and to children, the party times are over,” Tony said, turning at him with a weird gleam in his dark eyes.

“I passed by Steve’s room to come up there. I can assure you the ass-old men are awake, and I'll bet my money that the children aren't sleeping too,” Stephen was only half-mocking. Whatever was going on in Steve’s bedroom, it was very entertaining for the people involved. (Not that he didn’t exactly know what was going on, but still). “What are you doing there, though?”

“Looking at the city,” Tony’s legs were over the edge of the roof, swinging in the void under him. Stephen seated by his side without even thinking about it. It looked as if the both of them were flirting with death playing with the pitch-black abyss. “I know it's not cool, no need to put that face on.”

Stephen smiled, he wasn’t even considering what was or wasn’t cool. He could think about the reason why Stark was there in the first place. The man was afraid that something could appear in the sky of New York to threat humankind, as it happened too many times. They called him paranoid, but he was right from the beginning. Tony felt like he failed in protecting everyone. And that thought hunted him.  
He wanted to protect all the people he could. The problem was that, sometimes, it wasn’t possible, it didn’t matter how hard Tony tried to, he couldn’t protect all the people in the world. Not even all the people in New York. And that made him feel useless.

He felt Strange’s warmth as his side in the cold air of New York, and he hoped that the Sorcerer could understand what he was thinking. He knew, somehow the man did but not having the certain was killing him. He needed to speak with him, but he was scared to show his weaknesses to the others. Every time he did it, something dreadful happened, and it was his fault.

“Do you mind?” The wizard asked him even if he was already seated. Tony shook his shoulders.

“And what is the Supreme Sorcerer of the Earth doing there?” He asked, keeping as much as possible the distances between him and the other’s body. He wanted to stay close to him but he couldn’t. He thought of Pepper and how she watched him. 

 

_Tony, what’s wrong?_ She asked him. He shook his shoulders, but the truth was that he wasn’t even sure about what he had to say to her. Not after having seen that there was someone who understood him as if they shared the same mind.

He never answered to her. Though, his was enough of an answer for Pepper. She left him, telling him they both had things to figure out. Tony knew better: he knew she didn’t.

 

“Looking for you,” Stephen's steel blue eyes fixed on his face. They were hypnotic and, for a moment, Tony thought he would be thankful if he could drown in them. He forced himself not to look at Strange. It was the only way he could stop to think about the damned wizard in a way he really knew was better not to.

“Here I am. What’s wrong? Did something happened…?”

“Calm the fuck down,” Stephen whispered winking as If seeing his worried reaction pleased him. “Nothing happened, I just wanted to speak with you.”

Tony nodded, his eyes fixed on the New Yorker skyline. It was known as “the city that never sleeps”, though Tony was sure the only sleepless were the ones like him. People hunted by ghosts and demons. Was Strange one of that people too?  
Tony tried to remember something of what he read about the man before the annoying Cloak decided to glue himself to his shoulders. He was a narcissist with a god complex, that was how Tony labelled him, so different from the man who gave up his life to save him, to save Tony. Maybe his past was as dark as Stark’s one.   
That was comforting, in a certain way. 

“About what?” 

“This,” He was looking at him but his left hand slightly moved to indicate what was at their feet. “You, seating on the edge of the roof in the middle of the night.”

“I’m not going to jump.”

“That’s not what I said,” Something that Tony expected to appear on Stephen’s face didn’t show up. He didn't pity him, and he wasn’t trying to understand why a man who had everything and could create everything he needed couldn't be happy. People tended to believe he hadn’t a single problem in the world because of his money. “A spaceship won’t appear in the middle of the night. Aliens won't try to kill you and whoever lives there. You killed Thanos, you won.”

His voice was warm, comforting. Believe in his words was easy, more than Tony needed it to be. It was like a lullaby. A lot of times Pepper told him there weren’t always monsters in the closet, though he never believed her. He tried to protect her, over and over again and everything he received back was her trying to make him stop being Iron Man. And Tony wasn’t ready to let that part of his life go.   
Stephen words, though, sounded differently in his ears. 

“How can you be so sure about?” Tony asked. Stephen always looked so composed, so kept together. He never let anybody seen how broken he was, how past still followed him. Tony didn’t know the detail of it, but he saw his hands shaking. He knew the only person who was informed about Strange’s past was Wong and he respected the Sorcerer’s decision to keep it for himself. He just thought he would be easier to speak with him if he knew that the two of them really shared something.

“I’m not: I saw in the future, but there are so many possible outcomes I had to stop,” Stark could say he was sincere, even if he could have lied to him. “Though, I’ve learned something, holding the Time Stone,” His long fingertips were playing with the Eye of Agamotto around his neck. “You can know what’s in your future, or you can live it. There’s no middle ground. And if you try to know everything about it, you won’t ever live it. You’ll be frightened to do that single thing that can fuck everything up and you’ll simple seat and wait, and that's what would change it.   
Or you can live it, enjoy it and never knew what possibilities you are neglecting in favour of others. But you’ll live it.”

Tony looked at Strange. It was possibly the longest conversation they had since the ones about the Infinity Stones and Tony had no idea why Stephen was telling to him all that things, but he could spot something in Strange’s eyes.

“If I stay there, waiting for a threat to come, I’ll never see the future, that’s what you are telling me, isn’t it? A poor price for keeping these people safe, especially if the alternative is seeing Thanos 2.0’s terrible face.”

Stephen shook his head.   
“It wasn’t the point,” He said. “What was I trying to say was that I could be sure about my future though I choose there are things about it I don’t want to know before being ready to.”

“Such as?”

Stephen cracked in a softer smile. “Such as if there’s a future in which you could consider appropriate for me to ask you for a walk at Central Park.”

At that, Tony was smiling openly. “I suppose I can look at the sky also from Central Park,” He replied. Stephen nodded, turning his body so that his feet were on the roof floor. 

 

Maybe it wasn’t a date, maybe Stephen just saw him in a moment of difficulty and decided to play the good friend’s part. Though, when he thought better about the Sorcerer’s words, he realized that there was a sort of deeper meaning in them. A deeper meaning he would have to think about tomorrow when he wouldn't have Stephen’s naked body pushed against his and not a worry in the world.


End file.
